Preemption Again! High Court Ruling Means Mazda Will Face Crash Suit

Over the past few years, the U.S. Supreme Court has evinced a serious fondness for preemption cases.

Again, for those who are new to this world, preemption generally refers to the question of whether federal laws “preempt” state laws, and thus prohibit plaintiffs (often in the personal injury context) from filing suit under state law.

On Wednesday, the high court ruled that federal vehicle safety regulations don’t protect car makers from product-liability lawsuits for installing lap-only seat belts. Click here for the WSJ story; here for the Washington Post story; here for the NYT story; here and here for coverage over at Scotusblog.

The unanimous decision, written by Justice Stephen Breyer, clears the way for a California lawsuit against Mazda stemming from a 2002 fatal collision involving a 1993 Mazda MPV minivan. A . . .